Current Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Towards the East of Iceland

The weather became worst after I left Akureyri. The cloud was getting thicker and the northern wind was getting colder. I rarely see the sun anymore. The ride towards the east from Akureyri was quite easy at first, only an hour climb at 20km after Akureyri, and then the road was downhill and flat. Only after 50km ride from Akureyri, I discovered a huge and beautiful waterfall. I took a long rest there enjoying the waterfall. I didn’t know at all about the existence of this beautiful site. I brought the Lonely Planet guidebook with me but I never bother reading it, so I didn’t know about this.

I then discovered that the name of this waterfall is Godafoss, which means the Waterfall of the Gods. Hmmm I then learned that ancient Icelanders were pagans, Germanic pagans to be specific, during the age of the Vikings before they fully converted to Christians. There was an important guy (I failed to pronounce his name) who converted to Christian from pagans a thousand years ago, went to this waterfall and threw away all his statues of the Norse Gods inside it. I guess that’s how this waterfall got its name.

This beautiful waterfall is not really high, I guess its less than 20 meters high but its very broad. I wasn’t so lucky this time because it was very cloudy, I imagine if its were blue sky with the shining sun, I could easily see double rainbow here. I stayed here enjoying the view for more than an hour. And suddenly, I felt sooo lazy to continue the ride. Hehe… I then ended up pitching my tent here and even fell asleep! It was only 50km ride and I already decided to stop. Hehe but sometimes, you just cant help it. Once in a while, you want to feed your laziness. So there u go, I quickly pitch my tent and straight went to sleep for about an hour.

me being productive!

When I woke up, it was somewhere around 6pm. I went out from my tent, I saw a group of young European cyclists were camping near me as well!! The cloud was getting thicker, it was very cold and finally, the rain started. I have no other things to do but get back inside my tent and continue sleeping. I woke up in the middle of the night hoping to see the Midnight Sun, but the cloud was dominating the sky. Ignoring the cold, I went to the waterfall to enjoy the beauty of it. I stayed there for hours alone in the middle of the night. This is one of the nicest waterfall I ever seen in my life but I was suffering from the super cold wind.

Myvatn!

The next morning, the thick clouds don’t seem to move away, so I just decided to cycle further away towards Myvatn. It was only 50km away from Godafoss. But it was difficult for the last 10 kilometers, the headwind was very strong. I was cycling as slow as 9km/hour on flat road! Took me 4 hours to cover the 50km ride. When I reached Myvatn, I was surprise with the price here. Everything is very expensive here, since this is a favourite spot for tourists. Even to pitch a tent I had to pay nearly 50 ringgit our money per night. To recharge things like camera battery or handphone, I have to pay around 30 ringgit for each item! I was planning to stay long here at first but after seeing the price, I changed my mind.

the beautiful Myvatn

Went for a short hike to 1 of the inactive volcano here. It was a long walk, I should have bring my bicycle instead but I felt lazy since Ive been cycling for too long, I think I need to walk this time. It was about 6 kilometers from my campsite to the foot of the volcano, took me 15 minutes to climb to the top. The view was magnificent since the thick clouds already went away letting the blue sky to appear. The sun was shining proudly but the northern wind was blowing really strong. I walked around the volcano making a complete circle to enjoy the view, but didn’t stay too long as I couldn’t take the never ending strong wind.

the road towards Hverfell, the inactive volcano

each steps bring me nearer to Hverfell

…and finally, the climb

the crater of Hverfell

amazing view from the top

The next day, I did nothing but sleep. I really took a good rest here. The weather is good again, the sun is shining very strong! So I took this advantage to relax under the warm weather. It might reach 15c or more. The weather was very pleasant. Woke up very late, eat some pizza in a nearby restaurant and continue to sleep again! Hehe, reason I did that because I plan to hike another volcanic crater at night, capturing the beautiful Midnight Sun. So after I had enough sleep on daytime, I went hiking to Bjarnarflag, an active geothermal area and the surrounding areas. It was a very unique place to me. I’ve been to a few volcanoes before in Indonesia like Bromo and Ijen, but this is something really different. The rocks look very different and the water is really blue. During the sunset, the scenery looks very special with smoke all over coming from the Earth. This kind of landscape made me lose my patience to reach the southern part of Iceland, where all the active volcanoes lie. For now, I will cycle slowly getting to this other part of Iceland. I’ve entered the real land of fire now, after spending too long in the Westfjords area.

assalam & hi there. hope ur doing fine (looks so :). i’ve been a silent reader who hasn’t dropped by for a while, but just to let u know that everytime i drop by the photos and writings always open up my eyes, thoughts & heart. perhaps u’ll get into publishing these someday (soon?), as the places you go plus the way you’re doing this are just great! reminds me a bit like the travel tales from distant places by Tan Wee Cheng – he didnt even have pictures, but the distant places & tales make up for it. anyways just to let you know, and i’m a potential buyer here already for your tales if you ever decide to publish! till then, may the Force always be with you wherever you go! amiin.

thx bro! maybe one day when im done with my cycling journey, i will write a book. but for now, im actually filming my documentary. hope it will be out in one of our local tv station nxt year… the trailer will come out soon, will announce it on this blog :)